My road is covered with mud water and melting snow. Today I noticed steam pouring out from the front of the hood after splashing to the black top so I poped the hood to look and found nothing but I did notice my fan was not turning but the temp guage was below the half line.Does the fan only turn when it needs to. I also saw this steam the other day as it was raining. Any ideas?

 

Fan does turn on/off intermittently. The steam is from water hitting HOT portions of your engine bay. The headers, engine block, pulley system, and certain fluid lines will all turn water into steam when they get hot enough (hot enough is boiling temp or above).

Here's an example

 

thats what I was thinking it was

 

The fan comes on at 215°F, and runs until it cools to 195°F, (approximately on both figures).

Most of the time when you see steam coming out of the grill, it's from water hitting the radiator. Completely normal.

 

You will also see steam coming out from under the hood in the morning when there is alot of dew on the ground. Mine does it all the time when the radiator gets hot.